Ticehurst House and the Newingtons are synonymous with care for the insane since 1793 until the present day

The Newingtons are a long established Ticehurst family stretching back to Adam de Newington in the fifteenth century. Samuel Newington (1739 - 1811) was an apothecary and surgeon who, on January 26th 1793, in the Morning Chronicle under the heading "Insanity" advertised that he "having for thirty years past had patients under his care afflicted with this melancholy disorder, most of whom have been sent home to their friends in a sound state of mind, begs leave to inform the public that he has fitted up and neatly furnished a large and commodious house in Ticehurst for the reception of Patients of the above unfortunate description". The house, variously known as Ticehurst House or The Establishment, had been erected in the grounds of his home The Vineyard.

Samuel and his wife Martha had fifteen children and at his death in 1811, his two sons Charles (1780 - 1852) and Jesse (1779 -1819) succeeded to its management and with the death of Jesse in 1819, Charles became the asylum's proprietor and chief surgeon. By 1827 there were 30 male patients, 20 female patients, 19 female attendants and 17 male attendants. Charles Newington is credited with establishing the Asylum as one of the best of such establishments in England which he did over the subsequent decades until his death in 1852.

In 1812 Charles had married Elizabeth Hayes and their first two sons - Charles Edward Hayes Newington (1813 - 1863) and Samuel Newington (1814 - 1882) - continued the work of ministering to the insane. Their sons - Dr. Alexander Samuel Lysaght Newington (1846 - 1914) and Dr. Herbert Francis Hayes Newington (1847 - 1917), in turn, became the medical superintendants of Ticehurst House. In 1918 the Asylum was registered as "The Doctors Newington" a private unlimited company managed by four trusts representing various branches of the family until 1967 when it was re-incorporated as "Ticehurst House Private Clinic Ltd." and in 1974 it became part of Nestor Nursing Homes Ltd. Today it is part of the Priory Group and is known as "The Priory Ticehurst House".